RCPB(ML) Holds Social Setting the Course for 2015

Michael Chant and His Excellency Hyon Hak BongThe Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) held a New Year Social on January 10 to which were invited Party activists, friends and sympathisers from across the country.

The Social was a great success and manifested a lively, forward-looking and comradely atmosphere, with a varied buffet, much discussion and the meeting with old and new friends. Present at the event was His Excellency Hyon Hak Bong, Ambassador in London from the DPRK, and three other diplomats from the Embassy of the DPRK.

Mid-way through the evening, Michael Chant, as General Secretary, gave an extended toast. Following this Ambassador Hyon also spoke of the situation in the DPRK and of the close ties between the Workers’ Party of Korea and RCPB(ML).

A cultural programme of songs and instrumental music rounded off the evening, chiming with the militant atmosphere of the Social.

Below we present an slightly edited version of the remarks of Michael Chant to the gathering.

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Comrades and friends,

I would just like to say a few words of welcome and ushering in the New Year.

Once again, I very warmly welcome everyone here. It is great to see everyone. The Party normally has a New Year event sometimes right at the end of the old year, sometimes at the beginning of the new. This is our setting the scene for 2015. We think it is going to be a significant year for a number of reasons.

One thing to say is that, I don’t know how many people are on twitter. I responded to someone’s twitter, and I got retweeted I don’t know how many times. This is in 140 characters. It says: year of solidarity, year of resistance, year of unity against war, year of getting organised to realise our vision of the new.

So that is in a nutshell what 2015 is going to mean! For all the twitterati, this is the New Year!

Of course, we live in turbulent times, dangerous times. And the events of the past few days have underlined that, with the terrorist attacks in Paris and the associated hypocrisy of the warmongers and torturers over the issue of “free speech”. But these kinds of events are going on on a daily basis in Syria, in Libya – you name it – these atrocities are taking place. So one could look at this world situation and say that it is negative for the people.

And then domestically there is the issue of the anti-social offensive, the attacks on public services, privatisation, the assault on the dignity of people. Another way of describing it is that there is this climate of dictate everywhere, that the people are excluded from any say in the control of their lives and they are expected to toe the line in their jobs, behave in a certain way. If they step out of line, or are organisers amongst the people, those who set the agenda in line with the austerity agenda have no hesitation in trying to sack them.

So it is very important that these atrocities are laid not at the feet of the people but of the state and the ruling elite, that that is who is causing problems in the world. The state is being used to further the interests of the monopolies, to push through this programme of austerity and privatisation. So what is needed is a change of direction of society, and it is the people who are the force that can do this.

Resistance is building. It has been very clear over the past year. For instance, there is the direction of fighting for an anti-war government, there is the necessity for a new direction for the economy and society as a whole, there is a necessity to oppose the austerity agenda including privatisation, dictate, stepped up exploitation, and the whole movement to prevent people from taking control of their lives. So the fight is to turn that situation around. What we are fighting is the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a tiny minority. And it is being used against the people to deprive them of their future.

There are a number of reasons why 2015 is such an important year. In fact, May is a significant month, because May 7 is the date of the general election; and May 8/9 is the 70th anniversary of the victory over fascism in Europe. The Party intends to mark this anniversary in various ways. What perspectives that victory opened up have been almost totally reversed now: the progress of humanity, this aspiration for the new that came with the defeat of fascism, the fact that every human being has rights, the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and so on – all these were very important conclusions of the victory over fascism that the ruling elite, the monopoly capitalists, have thrown in the mud.

As regards the election: our overall slogan as the election approaches is – No to the Coalition, Defeat the Austerity Agenda, and Vote for Candidates who Oppose Austerity and Stand for the Rights of All! We regard the election as a kind of battleground. It is not an occasion where the people drop their interests, and just put an X or abstain, whatever they want to do. Rather it is an opportunity to push the independent politics of the working class. And this means that a path has to be opened to reject all the rationales or justifications for the austerity agenda. Many people are going to be in struggle. There are new forces in the making like the NHA Party who stand for the alternative or are fighting for the new in various ways. There are other forces like the Green Party, the Socialist Labour Party who we have close relations with, and others, who are all participating in the election on the side of progress. It is important that the ruling elite should not have the upper hand in this, because the experience of the elections in this country, ever since 1997 when Tony Blair took power is that the ruling elite, the bourgeoisie, tries to stage an electoral coup. In other words, they try and promote someone like they did in 1997 with Tony Blair, who repeated ad nauseam “New Labour, New Britain”, all these illusions that something new was coming into being, and then look what happened. Illusions were shattered, Britain was taken into illegal wars with Iraq, the privatisation agenda was developed. But the ruling elite has problems formulating these champions today. Obviously at the last election there was a coalition, so there was nobody, you could say, they saw – let’s vote for him, and he’ll get elected, and then we’ll push our reactionary agenda under a progressive veneer. That is why this time we are calling on people to say No! to the Coalition, and to organise to defeat the austerity agenda, because this is the crucial issue facing the people. But it is not that we say, vote for another party. We say that it is an opportunity for the people to get further organised and develop their own motion.

We think that it is an important call, as 2015 gets under way, that there is the necessity for everyone to actually get organised, to strengthen their organisations, to become part of the organised resistance movement. This is a call on a very basic level, that society is not just made up of individuals. Margaret Thatcher infamously said that there is no such thing as society, only individuals and family values. But in denying society, she was also denying the rights of individuals and family values also. In the North East, only the other day there was a strike on the basis that the company was trying to impose shifts which were against the family. This is an example of how far things have gone. The collectives of the people are what is crucial, they are the link between individual rights and the overall rights of society, the general interests.

The other thing we wanted to emphasise in this call to get organised is the necessity to put the question of rights at the centre of all struggles, whether it is in the health service, the right to health care, in education the right to education, in the women’s movement, the rights of women as a collective and so on. This is crucial to the overall well-being of society and to oppose the austerity agenda.

Another issue we wanted to emphasise in 2015 is the question of the Workers’ Opposition. We have upheld the necessity to build the Workers’ Opposition for many years now. But the Party thinks that it is particularly crucial at this time that the focus should be on building this opposition, an organised opposition amongst the workers. This means being political. The workers have to take up their own politics. Which means not that they have to support one party or another but they have to fight for their own interests, they have to fight for what is characteristic of the workers, which is the collective, the public good, the interests of society as against monopoly right which imposes the rights of a handful of individuals, of the financial oligarchy, above all things. This is consistent with our overall slogan, that Only the Working Class Can Save the Day, which we put forward in 2003, that this is the call of history, that the working class, which is basically everyone who produces value through their work, and is the majority of society, that has to get into motion.

The Party also wants to emphasise the importance of unity in action of the people’s forces. This is key to developing the struggles of the people and avoiding splits and divisions. It should be a principle, for instance, not to divide over, that is, to create lines of demarcation, over tactics. Rather it is necessary to work out through discussion on a mass democratic basis what is actually what, what is going on in the world, what are the issues, and through that bring the broadest possible forces to bear in hitting at the source of this assault on the public good, on the working class and people. And we think the Party, RCPB(ML), has an important role here in formulating the slogans and tactics which are consistent with this line of march, which will bring about a new society with human beings at the centre.

Also we want to call on everyone in their various ways to join with the Party in its activities. In 2015, it goes without saying that we will further develop our work. We are planning on holding a journalists’ school at some time during the year. So we encourage anyone interested to participate in this school so we can broaden and improve the Party’s journalism. And the cutting edge of this journalism is to give direction to the resistance against the anti-social offensive and towards the new social organisation with the working class and people as the decision-makers.

We also want to seriously mark International Women’s Day, March 8, this year. And we think that guaranteeing the rights of women is an issue for the whole of society. One only has to look at the struggles which are going on, and almost without exception it is women who are the forefront. If you take the health work, anti-war work, trade union work, it is actually very true that concretely it is the case that women are the most advanced in the struggles.

Finally I wanted to look back and say that 2015 is also the fifteen years since the launch in January 2000 of the Party’s document, The Line of March to a New Society, which still embodies the principles around which we are organised and the line of march we are advancing along. It is also fifteen years since the launch of the Party’s Millennium Project, which was a project of developing the Party press and the non-Party press in the 21st century, so the working class and its allies can have the mass media they require today. So all these are ongoing projects as we are advancing into the 21st century with these programmes and lines.

I definitely want to congratulate all the members, sympathisers and supporters of the Party for the work that has been carried out in 2014. The activists of the Party have shouldered much work and taken really important stands in the working class and people’s movements, defending the right to conscience, and defending the right of nations to self-determination, organising in the midst of the people’s struggles and defending the rights of all. With our friends from the DPRK present, I particularly want to mention our work with the Friends of Korea organisation, which has had many meetings to combat the disinformation against the DPRK and uphold its right to chart its own destiny and for the people to decide their own future without outside interference. This is a very important part of the work.

You may have seen that the Centre has a new painting in the front room. We are very pleased to have it there, painted by an artist who is with us tonight. We think that it is an important decoration to our Centre. My view is that it represents what we are in 2015, the breaking through of past limitations, and it also represents the horizons on which we set our sights.

Our watchword, finally, is to further bring into play the human factor/social consciousness in 2015, to march along this line which brings about a society in which the people are sovereign, where the people are the decision-makers and can administer the state in their own favour with mechanisms that serve them and not serve the ruling elite. So we think this is a very exciting prospect in 2015, despite the fact that there is a hard struggle ahead. It involves putting on the agenda the defence of the rights of all, it involves putting on the agenda the fight for a change in the direction of society, and as we have said on our New Year card this year, the perspective is that there is a world to win and this is where we set our sights for the people in 2015.

Thank you.

So a toast to the work in 2015! Cheers!

On January 10, the New Communist Party held a Memorial Meeting for its late President, Eric Trevett. RCPB(ML) sent a message to the meeting which read:

Dear comrades and friends

Our Party, the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), pays tribute to the life and work of Comrade Eric Trevett, founder member of the New Communist Party of Britain, its General Secretary from 1979 to 1995, and subsequently its President until his death last September.

Eric kept the red flag of communism flying to the very end. From our point of view, we marched together on the path of aspiring to have and working towards a united communist movement on a new and revolutionary basis.

As RCPB(ML) said in its message of condolence, “this work to build anew the communist movement which had its common roots in the anti-revisionist movement of the 1970s was our common aspiration, and our two Parties have made strenuous efforts to make this aspiration a reality”.

As we remarked, part of Eric’s legacy is to underline the importance of this work. We wrote, “There is an urgency to this work which, sadly, Eric was unable to fulfil because of his illness. But this work lives on, and the sincerity with which Eric imbued the work is an inspiration to us all.”

This is foremost in our minds when we pay tribute to Comrade Eric on this occasion, as it was fundamental to our working relations. We came to know him as a very human and likeable person. We felt that we could put all our concerns on the table and discuss them in depth when Eric brought his invaluable experience in the communist movement to bear.

Our two Parties continue to make headway in developing our unity, discussing all the questions of the strategy and tactics which a communist party must adopt in the 21st century, and beginning to pay attention together to the theoretical work without which the revolutionary movement cannot take full shape.

To honour Eric’s memory, let us continue to overcome the obstacles which the bourgeoisie places in the path of building the unity of the communist and workers’ movement.

To reiterate the concluding words of our message of condolence: “we are comrades in arms together in holding high the banner of communism. Together, at Eric’s behest, let us carry this banner forward.”

On January 1, 2015 (or Juche 104 in the DPRK calendar), Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, made a New Year address for 2015.

He began by saying that 2014 marked a year “in which we clearly demonstrated the spirit and might of the great DPRK that advances by leaps and bounds” and the new year was full of hope for 2015. He recognised “the boundless loyalty of all the service personnel and people … who are striving with devotion for the dignity and prosperity of the country with revolutionary faith and patriotic enthusiasm”; and he then paid “the highest tribute” and offered New Year greetings to President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il, “the eternal leaders of our people”. He also wished the families throughout the country his warmest affection, wishing “our lovely children” a bright future.

He sent greetings to “the compatriots in the south and abroad who are fighting for national concord and reunification and to the progressive peoples of the world and other foreign friends who aspire after independence and peace”.

Kim Jong Un spoke of the army training under combat conditions and that this enabled everyone to “became strong in ideas and faith and prepared as an invincible army capable of discharging operational and combat missions proficiently in any circumstances and conditions”. He said that “iron military discipline was established in the entire army” and unprecedented successes were made in the improvement of soldiers’ living conditions.

He said that the DPRK has developed its defence industry sector and has made various improvments to its military strike capacity, and this has led “to the qualitative growth of the revolutionary armed forces”. He said that “last year we made great progress in the building of a socialist economic giant and civilised nation by the joint operation of the army and people”.

He said that “the new year 2015 will be a year of great significance, in which we will mark the 70th anniversaries of national liberation and founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea. Greeting this significant year, our people are looking back with great pride and dignity upon the glorious 70-year history of our Party and homeland which have achieved shining victories under the wise leadership of the President and the General; they are full of confidence and optimism with a determination to follow the Party and achieve final victory in the Juche revolution pioneered on Mt. Paektu.” It is important to “thwart the challenges and manoeuvres by hostile forces and score a signal success in the struggle to defend socialism and on all fronts of building a thriving nation”. He said, “we should celebrate the 70th anniversaries of national liberation and the founding of the Party, as revolutionary, auspicious events”.

After elaborating on the country’s defence capability, Kim Jong Un spoke of the Party’s line of promoting two fronts simultaneously. He said the need was for the defence industry sector to step up its efforts to make the munitions production Juche-oriented, modern and scientific, and to proactively develop and perfect powerful cutting-edge “military hardware of our own style”.

He that this year they would make the building of a socialist economic giant and civilised nation, emphasising science and technology, the main focus. He said that “it is a determination and will of our Party to rapidly develop all sectors and build a people’s paradise by dint of science and technology. He said they would defeat the sanctions and encourage all sectors of the economy to make rapid headway; especially in the area of scientific research.

He spoke of the potential and necessity to maintain the self-supporting economy. He talked of the need to “resolve the food problem of the people and improve their dietary provision to a higher level with agricultural production, animal husbandry and fishing as the main thrusts”.

Further on, speaking of giving a vigorous spur to the building of a civilised socialist nation, Kim Jong Un emphasised the necessity of bringing about a radical improvement in education in the new century. He said that the sector of art and literature should produce larger numbers of contemporary masterpieces which inspire the masses to further efforts, and the public health sector should improve the hygienic and anti-epidemic work and preventive and curative medical care and boost pharmaceutical production.

Further on, Kim Jong Un underlined that “seventy years have passed since our nation was divided by outside forces”.

“In those decades,” he said, “the world has made a tremendous advance and the times have undergone dramatic changes, but our nation has not yet achieved reunification, suffering the pain of division. It is a deplorable fact known to everyone and it is lamentable to everyone. No longer can we bear and tolerate the tragedy of national division that has continued century after century.

“Last year we put forward crucial proposals for improved inter-Korean relations and national reunification and made sincere efforts for their implementation. Our efforts, however, could not bear due fruit owing to the obstructive moves by the anti-reunification forces within and without; instead the north-south relations have been on a headlong rush to aggravation.”

Kim Jong Un said that the slogan of struggle which the entire Korean nation can uphold is: Let the whole nation join efforts to open up a broad avenue to independent reunification in this year of the 70th anniversary of national liberation!

Kim Jong Un condemned the large-scale war games held every year in south Korea as the root cause of the escalating tension on the peninsula and the danger of nuclear war. “It is needless to say that there can be neither trustworthy dialogue nor improved inter-Korean relations in such a gruesome atmosphere in which war drills are staged against the dialogue partner,” he said.

He went on to call on the United States, which has divided the Korean nation into two and has imposed the suffering of national division upon it for 70 years, to desist from pursuing an anachronistic policy hostile towards the DPRK and switch its policy.

“The north and the south should refrain from seeking confrontation of systems while absolutising their own ideologies and systems but achieve great national unity true to the principle of By Our Nation Itself to satisfactorily resolve the reunification issue in conformity with the common interests of the nation,” Kim Jong Un said. He continued, “If they try to force their ideologies and systems upon each other, they will never settle the national reunification issue in a peaceful way, only bringing confrontation and war. Though the people-centred socialist system of our own style is the most advantageous, we do not force it on south Korea and have never done so.”

They should briskly hold dialogue, negotiations and exchanges, Kim Jong Un emphasised, and make contact to relink the severed ties and blood vessels of the nation and bring about a great turn in inter-Korean relations.

Kim Jong Un declared, “Nothing is impossible if our nation shares one purpose and joins efforts. On the road for reunification the north and the south had got such charter and great programme for reunification as the July 4 Joint Statement, the historic June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration, thus demonstrating to the whole world the nation’s determination and mettle to reunify the country.” There is no reason, he explained, why a summit meeting should not be held if the atmosphere and environment for it are created.

Kim Jong Un continued, “Last year, in the international arena, hostilities and bloodshed persisted in several countries and regions due to the imperialists’ outrageous arbitrariness and undisguised infringement upon their sovereignty, which posed a serious threat to global peace and security. Especially, owing to the United States’ extremely hostile policy aimed at isolating and suffocating our Republic, the bulwark of socialism and fortress of independence and justice, the vicious cycle of tension never ceased and the danger of war grew further on the Korean peninsula.”

He stressed, “The present situation, in which high-handedness based on strength is rampant and justice and truth are trampled ruthlessly in the international arena, eloquently demonstrates that we were just in our efforts to firmly consolidate our self-reliant defence capability with the nuclear deterrent as its backbone and safeguard our national sovereignty, the lifeblood of the country.”

Kim Jong Un concluded by pointing out that the Workers’ Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK will consolidate the bonds of solidarity with the world’s progressive peoples who love peace and aspire after independence and justice, and will strive to develop good neighbourly relations with all the countries that respect the DPRK’s national sovereignty.

“Final victory undoubtedly belongs to us!” he declared, wishing all families across the country every happiness in 2015.

Chris Coleman, National Leader of RCPB(ML) sent a New Year congratulatory message to Kim Jong Un on behalf of the entire Party.

He said, “We feel overjoyed that the people of the DPRK and their leadership are seeing in 2015 full of hope and confidence in turning their successes into final victory. Our two Parties are full of the confidence that comes from our hearts beating as one in the struggle for the same cause. We regard your success and achievements as ours. In this respect, we express warm solidarity in support of your New Year speech. In particular, we assess it as very important that in the year of the 70th anniversaries of the liberation of the country and the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea, far-sighted proposals are being put forward for national reunification and for guaranteeing the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula. This is of great significance not only for the Korean nation, but for that humanity which is fighting against the warmongering and hegemonism of US imperialism. We draw inspiration from the response of the Korean people to the situation they face and their determination to march forward as one despite all setbacks and the complicated national and international situation.

“Once again, our very best wishes for the New Year and for continued success in your work. We stand as ever shoulder to shoulder with you and the Korean people in our common cause of independence and socialism, and a future without war, a future when sovereign peoples everywhere will be in control of their own destinies.”

On January 1, the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) conveyed to the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba in London its most heartfelt congratulations on the 56th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. The message said:

“On that day, under the leadership of Comrade Fidel Castro, the Cuban people took control of their own destiny. Since that day, they have never ceased to defend their sovereignty and dignity, and to safeguard their right to self-determination.

“We cannot fail to rejoice with the Cuban people over the return to the homeland of the five anti-terrorist heroes, known throughout the world as the Cuban Five, unjustly incarcerated in US jails for more than 16 years. We warmly welcome the decision of the Cuban and US governments to re-establish diplomatic relations, and we call now for the lifting of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed upon Cuba by the US.

“The Cuban people continue to renew their revolution, according to the necessities of the times. This is an immense inspiration to the peoples in struggle everywhere for a better world, a world of the dignity of the human person and humanitarian internationalism. May we take this opportunity to pay tribute to the leaders of the Revolution, Fidel and Raúl, and to express our unwavering support for the right of the Cuban people to determine their own future, building their own chosen socialist system in the face of all the challenges that history presents.

“Long Live the Cuban Revolution!”